This Thursday at 3 p.m., the coach of the France Espoirs team, Thierry Henry, will give his last list of players before the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. If this is the under-21s, the age limit will be raised to 23 for the Olympics, where Henry will have to choose eighteen young (or not so young) men to win gold. Le Figaro looked at the possible composition of a starting eleven which would have little to envy of the Blues of Didier Deschamps.
The main ace up each nation’s sleeve is the possibility of calling up three players over the age of 23. According to Le Parisien, Henry would favor Kylian Mbappé, Antoine Griezmann and Olivier Giroud. Three automatically-titled world champions at the Olympics. But according to L’Equipe, Kylian Mbappé’s Olympic project is fading away: “Hope would be quite slim. The captain of the Blues knows very well that given his investment and his image, and the importance of the first steps of his galactic recruit, Real will not want to release him.
We can expect Bradley Barcola, who earned his place at PSG, to be in the mix as well. Offensively, it’s a dream.
In the middle, there would also be very heavy. Warren Zaire-Emery, a must-see in Paris, will certainly be there. And potentially accompanied by Eduardo Camavinga, 21 years old but with an eloquent CV (13 caps, 131 matches for Real Madrid). The former Rennais also has the advantage of being able to help out as a left back, useful in a group of “only” 18 players.
In defense, William Saliba is the biggest name. The central defender is a captain at Arsenal, leaders of the Premier League. To support him, Castello Lukeba, regular starter at Leipzig and who has already played under Henry’s orders with the Bleuets, seems to be holding the rope. Quentin Merlin (Marseille) appears as the No. 1 candidate on the left, as does Malo Gusto (Chelsea) on the right.
At the goalkeeper position, Lille’s Lucas Chevalier (22 years old) is clearly ahead of the promising Guillaume Restes (19 years old). The Toulouse goalkeeper would not, however, be the only attractive name on the bench, where we can imagine players already called up by Deschamps like Benoît Badiashile (Chelsea), Khéphren Thuram (Nice) or Adrien Truffert (Rennes).
The possible eleven of the Blues at JO: Knight – Merlin, Lukeba, Saliba, Gusto – Camavinga, Zaire-Emery – Barcola, Griezmann, Mbappe – Giroud
Possible replacements: Remains, Badiashile, Truffert or B. Diakité, K. Thuram, M. Koné, Tel, Kalimuendo